Save
by Rosa Cotton
Summary: COMPLETE! Scene from the movie. While traveling through the Dead Marshes Smeagol remembers, Sam is suspicious, and Frodo is concerned. Part 3: Why Did He Save Me?
1. Why Did I Save Him?

Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own the story, the characters, or setting. 

Author's Note: I have always been intrigued by this scene in the movie. I would wonder why Gollum saved Frodo, what Frodo was thinking when he discovered it was Gollum that had saved him, what Sam thought of the whole thing. This story is my own answer to those questions. This is my second story where I write a scene from the movie from several points of views. Please let me know what you think.

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Save

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Part 1: Why Did I Save Him?

We carefully test the ground with our fingers and weight. Careful hobbits must be. Yesssssss, they do not want to fall with the ground and join the dead ones. Good Smeagol will take them safely through the marshes; yessssss, we will, Preciousssss…

"Frodo!" The fat hobbit calls, panic in his voice.

Master? We turn sharply and see master fall into the water. The fat hobbit rushes toward where master fell. If hobbit not careful, he will also fall in. 

But I do not move. A memory… a splash… he came up, choking from the water and what my hands had done. He looked at me once – confusion, anger, accusation, and sorrow in his eyes. I did not notice though. Instead I tenderly brushed my fingers against the gold. So smooth, so shiny, so beautiful.

I stare at where master fell in; water settles but master does not appear. 

Deagol did not appear…

We rush back to the fat hobbit and start searching too, peering into the water. Where is master? 

We must find him, then take back our Precious. Quick we will be, like with Deagol.

No! I promised to help master. He is my friend.

We hates him, we hate Bagginsssss. We hate Deagol! He refused to give It to us.

"No, no," I whimper as I keep crawling, sticking my neck far out, trying to find master. 

Deagol…I'm sorry…__

I thrust my hand in the slimy water. Something brushes my hand; it burns me. Master! I grab hold and pull. Master comes up, coughing and gagging. He does nothing to help bring himself up from the water. I grab his vest with my other hand and drag him to the edge of the water, then heave him up onto the land. Once we are safely away from the water and on firm ground, I let go of master. 

Master turns to me, his face pale. 

"Gollum?" 

"Don't follow the lights," I say. 

I place my hand on the ground and hiss sharply in pain; my poor hand still burns from the nasty elf-cloak. I look at master.  He blinks. I notice the fat hobbit rushing towards us. He glares at me warningly. Fearful, I turn and scamper away, my progress slowed as I try to cradle my injured hand.

"Gollum?" I hear master, confused, call to me. 

"Mister Frodo?" the fat hobbit asks anxiously. "Are you all right?"

I can feel his burning eyes following me. I did not hurt master! Why does fat hobbit always try to cause us trouble? Something wet slides down my face. What is it? But I don't dwell on it. Why did I save master? 

You had a chance to redeem yourself.

I turn my head sharply to the left and right. No one is there. Who said that? 

"I am sorry, Deagol." I feel more wet things glide down my face. What are they, Precious?


	2. Why Did He Save Him?

Part 2: Why Did He Save Him?

I follow Gollum as he leads us through the marshes – Dead Marshes Gollum called them. The air is so rotten I can barely breathe. I cannot remember what fresh air smells like. I watch Gollum crawl on all fours as he determines the safest place for us to walk. I still don't understand why Frodo did not let me tie the disgusting creature up and leave him to die. 

_"But now that I see him, I do pity him."  _I shake my head. How could Frodo pity the creature? Gollum tried to hurt him when he went for the Ring! I don't trust his promise to help us. And I don't like how he is all trying to please and being friendly. He is probably trying to get us to let our guard down and then seize the Ring. 

That is why I prefer to have myself between Gollum and my master. The more distance between them, the better. And if Gollum does anything to try to get the Ring, he'll have to deal with me first. 

I turn to check on Frodo, and I see he is several yards behind. He does not follow me. He stares blankly into the water, his head bent down.

"Frodo!" I shout.

He shows no sign of hearing me. Suddenly he simply falls forward into the water. My eyes widen in horror, and I rush back to where he was, trying to be careful of not stepping on a part of the ground that is soft and hence fall into the mucky water, too.  I do not see him at the place where he fell in.  So I speed even further back, my eyes frantically searching through the marsh.

I am starting to panic. Frodo has not come up for air. Now I know he can swim, a very strong swimmer he is, but his not coming up is unsettling. 

The sound of someone gasping and heaving causes me to turn. Gollum has found Frodo. He drags Frodo out of the water and into the ground. I breathe a sigh of relief. But then I tense. I don't like how Gollum is bending over Frodo. They are so close… All Gollum would have to do… I rush towards them. I will kill the creature if he does anything funny. Gollum looks at me and cowers. He then hobbles away. Good, he has some fear of me. I notice he seems to prefer hobbling on one hand, but I do not dwell on it. Frodo is all I care about. 

I throw myself to my knees next to Frodo. I wrap my arms around him, reassuring myself that he is all right. But he does not look at me. He watches Gollum.

"Gollum?" he calls after the creature. Is it my imagination, or is there a little concern in his voice?

I glance at the retreating figure. What has he done to deserve Frodo's concern? A thought hits me, and I do not like it. 

You owe him – you owe him for saving Frodo's life. 

I clamp my eyes shut and gnash my teeth together. No, I do not want to think about it. But as I try to calm myself, I wonder: why did he save him?

"Mister Frodo! Are you all right?"

I swear to myself that I will watch Frodo more carefully and help him as best I can.  


	3. Why Did He Save Me?

Author's Note: I am so sorry for taking so long in getting up the final chapter of this story. Part of the reason was because of a long and busy weekend; and also because I was having trouble logging onto my account.

I have seen The Return of the King trailer! Wahoo! I am dying to see what Peter Jackson has done with Frodo, Gollum, and Sam.

     "Precious will be ours," Gollum talks to himself, unaware of Sam listening.

     "He means to murder us!" Sam warns Frodo.

     "Never!" Gollum protests, turning to them.

     "I'm not sending him away!" Frodo tells Sam fiercely. "Come, Smeagol," he says in a soft voice and takes the creature's hand.

     Sam looks on in sadness and disbelief. Gollum smiles at him with an evil look in his eyes. 

That was my favorite part of the trailer. *sigh* Anyway, on with the third and final part of _Save_!

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Part 3: Why Did He Save Me? 

The voices whispering in my head are overwhelming. The Ring blends with the voices that are everywhere in my mind since we entered the Dead Marshes. 

I stand still, feeling exhausted. I stare at the faces that lie in the water. Their skin is very pale, almost white; their hair floats about them. 

"Frodo!"

I think I hear someone calling me from far away. I feel like I'm floating. I blink slowly. Where am I? Am I dry? Am I wet? Phantoms swirl around me. Their hideous faces stare at me. I can see nothing in their cold eyes. Their smiles are chilling. Their hands reach towards me…towards my neck…towards the Ring. I try to fight them, but everything I do is in slow motion. I am tempted to give up, to let my eyes roll back into my head.

I feel a powerful grip grab hold of my shoulder. I am powerless against it. I close my eyes as it pulls me into unknown depths.

Water streams down my face as I break out of the water. I gasp; my lungs take in the stale – but very much needed – air. I try to assist the person that drags me up to land by pushing myself up with my legs. 

Sam… I think, and I turn, the word about to fall from my lips. But the word retreats from my mouth and mind as I stare into the gray blue eyes of my rescuer. My eyes widen in shock. 

"Gollum?" I say in disbelief.

He is the last person I thought of seeing here. He is wet from rescuing me and pants heavily. Why did he save me? I blink in surprise at the thought. But it is true, I slowly realize: he did save me.

"_Don't_ follow the lights!" he says, breaking into my thoughts.  

I continue staring at him. I should thank him, I must. But as I am about to speak, he hisses softly, suddenly, as he puts his hand down, and a look quickly crosses his face.  Is it a look of pain that I see? I look at his hands, but I cannot tell if anything is the matter. He glances over my shoulder, ducks his head, and quickly crawls away. I notice he uses only one hand as he goes. Now I am certain something is not right with him. I try to push myself up to go after him.

"Gollum!" 

If he hears me, he does not listen but keeps on going.

"Mister Frodo! Are you all right?"

Sam takes hold of my shoulders, but I don't bother turning to him nor answering him. I am fine, thanks to Smeagol. But my eyes narrow with worry as I watch him. 

I let Sam help me to my feet and fuss about my catching cold. But I do not listen. I want to get a chance to check on Smeagol and make sure he is all right. I pity him; I do not desire for him to suffer because of what he did for me.

THE END

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2nd Author's Note: I want to thank everyone who has reviewed this story and those who told me that I had written Sam well and that he was in character; I am very relieved. For those begging me to write more Gollum – and especially concerning the Black Gate – fear not. I am currently working on the sequel to Save; Gollum will have his hand looked over and there will interaction between him and Frodo. I am surprised by what I have written so far of the story because there is some conflict that I was not suspecting of, and the story is much darker than I first intended. Once I finish the sequel I will then see about writing the Black Gate sequence from the three's point-of-views. So keep your eyes open.


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